TABLE 3.5
| Outcomes for children exiting foster care, fiscal year 2001 | ||
| Note: Deaths are attributable to a variety of causes including medical conditions, accidents, and homicide. | ||
| SOURCE: "What Were the Outcomes for the Children Exiting Foster Care during Fiscal Year 2001?" in Child Welfare Outcomes 2001: Annual Report, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, Children's Bureau, 2004, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/publications/cwo01/cwo01.pdf (accessed October 27, 2004) | ||
| Reunification with parent(s) or primary caretaker(s) | 57% | 148,606 |
| Living with other relative(s) | 10% | 26,084 |
| Adoption | 18% | 46,668 |
| Emancipation | 7% | 19,008 |
| Guardianship | 3% | 8,969 |
| Transfer to another agency | 3% | 7,918 |
| Runaway | 2% | 5,219 |
| Death of child | 0% | 528 |
Brenda Jones-Harden, Annie Brown, Ruby Gourdine, Jacqueline Smith, Anniglo Boone, and Shelita Snyder, Children of Color in the Child Welfare System: Perspectives from the Child Welfare Community, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children's Bureau, Washington, DC). According to the authors, while African-American children make up 15% of all children in the United States, they represent 25% of substantiated maltreatment victims. In addition, these children account for 45% of all children in foster care.
Researchers conducted the study in nine child welfare agencies across the country. They interviewed agency administrators, supervisors, and caseworkers. The child welfare personnel gave a variety of reasons why minority children are over-represented in the child welfare system, including:
- Poverty and poverty-related issues—Child welfare personnel thought that African-American families are more likely to be poor than other ethnic/racial groups. This makes them more vulnerable to social problems such as child maltreatment, domestic violence, and substance abuse. Moreover, these families typically live in areas lacking resources where they can go for assistance.
- Visibility—Poor families are more likely to use public services, such as public health care, making them more visible to mandated reporters when they are experiencing problems, including child abuse and neglect.
- Over-reporting—Many study participants proposed that, since poor families are more visible to mandated reporters such as doctors and nurses, they are more likely to be reported to CPS.
- Worker bias—When investigating particular families, some caseworkers may not understand the cultural norms and practices of minorities; this may influence their decisions at different stages of child welfare services, including child maltreatment reporting, investigation, substantiation, and the child's removal from home and placement in foster care.
- Media bias—According to child welfare personnel, the media frenzy that occurs after each high-profile child abuse case influences their decision to substantiate certain cases and remove children from their homes. Caseworkers in two sites (both located in areas that are mainly African-American) revealed that they felt "frightened and insecure" each time they came under media attention, which they thought has become quite frequent. One worker stated,
[Workers] tend to feel safer placing children in care … because they've gotten pressure about leaving children in homes and something happens to them so they feel safer bringing a child into care. When in doubt, take them out. A lot of times, in African-American communities, they're going to take them out.
Perspectives on the Impact of Federal Policies on Children in the Child Welfare System
Some child welfare personnel who were interviewed for the study Children of Color in the Child Welfare System: Perspectives from the Child Welfare Community believed that the Multi-ethnic Placement Act (MEPA) of 1994 (Public Law 103-382), which allows the placement of African-American children in nonminority homes, does not serve children's best interests. They were concerned that transracial placements might be harmful to minority children's self-esteem and ethnic/racial identity.
On the other hand, child welfare personnel said MEPA has given them the alternative of placing some children with extended families. One supervisor quoted by the study commented, "The other thing that [MEPA] has done … is that it has broadened the role that family [are] able to play. For instance, we never used to recommend relative adoptions. It was seen as being very problematic and creating all kinds of difficult dynamics within the family system. And, now, that's a preferred plan, to have a relative that wants to adopt."
Study participants were also asked about their perspectives on the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997 (Public Law 105-89). Among its provisions, AFSA has accelerated the permanent placement of children waiting in foster care. ASFA allows the termination of parental rights in situations where family reunification is considered not possible. ASFA gives states incentive payments to find adoptive families for foster children within a certain time frame.
Participants reported concerns that families experiencing other issues, such as substance abuse and mental health problems, may take longer to resolve their problems. CPS workers admitted they feared that, under ASFA requirements, they might have to terminate parental rights before parents have had the time to sort out their problems. To aggravate the situation, these goals are hard to accomplish when they lack the financial resources to provide social services and treatments.
STATES SHOULD USE ASFA TO THEIR ADVANTAGE. Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform (Alexandria, VA), noted, "In passing ASFA, Congress failed to learn the lessons some states have begun to learn after experiencing foster care panics—huge, sudden increases in placements that follow intensive media coverage of the death of a child who was known to the [child welfare] system" ("Take the Child and Run: Tales from the Age of ASFA," New England Law Review, vol. 36, no. 1, Fall 2001). Wexler described how, in the aftermath of foster care panics, child abuse deaths tend to increase. Caseworkers, fearing the scrutiny of politicians and the media and overwhelmed with more cases, may remove children from homes that could have been made safe with the right services, while leaving others in dangerous homes.
Wexler observed that while ASFA encourages states to terminate parental rights within a restricted time period and provides monetary incentives for adoptions, nothing in the law prevents states from providing parents with housing or child care. States do not have to use the "take the child and run" approach. Instead, states can provide rent subsidies so that parents would not lose their children because of lack of decent housing. Moreover, states can provide daycare so that single working parents who leave children unsupervised in order to earn a living would not lose those children because they have been found neglectful.
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